Damp but fine

We’re starting the runup to Christmas slightly damp but otherwise fine over here. A wet weekend, no boat on Saturday due to weather, some high winds, but nothing major going wrong. And while that was happening, there was a pantomime given by the local amateur dramatic group, but the children’s bazaar was moved to next Saturday as some of the participants couldn’t get across for it. A couple of us are practising today for the carols on Thursday – 7.30 pm, Lefteris kafeneion, proceeds to the Rhodes orphanage.

At home, the kitchen table is a mess as I started on my latest model kit and then had to pause while I waited for new paints to arrive. I’m now starting to get comments about clearing the table as the model bits and box have been there so long, and am reminded of being 12 again. I think the glow in the dark witch will have to go away until after Christmas, but I will get back to it.

One of the things I still have to move to this new PC is my photo resising software. I thought it would be an easy task at 5.30 on a Sunday morning, but it’s not, so you will have to make do with no images for now. I was going to post something more festive, but until I can find a new programme, or move over the old one, this will have to do.

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Winter Saturday Photos

A few photos from Friday in Yialos. As you can see, quiet, a little bit damp (it’s still raining now, Saturday morning), but just as spectacular as ever.

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Could be a bleak day

As I am writing this yesterday, I don’t yet know the outcome of the yUK elections, but I’m sitting here hoping beyond hope that the Con party don’t get back in again. Not that I am particularly Labour, but it seems the only option to stop the decline of the country, or at least send it in another direction, and anything has to be better than the mess the other lot have made over the last nine years. What’s more, it’s very frustrating not to be able to do anything about it. Of course, for us, the Brexit shambles and shame is the most pressing matter as its one that could directly impact on where and how we live, and yet, even though I am one of those most affected by it, I have no say in what happens to that either. My country, I feel, has abandoned me and I must leave it up to my friends back there to deliver my future. Equally, it’s up to those who don’t care about us overseas, and I can’t influence them, so all I can do is worry about it.

As I am an early riser, I expect I will be up in time to see the results coming in, but by the time I surface, I reckon there will be a clear indication of what’s happening. Another five years of hideous self-serving and non-caring about certain sections of society, or a mix-up of parties vying for leadership and the same Brexit debacle rumbling on as it was before the election was announced, or possibly, but I have to say, doubtfully, a completely new government with a decent majority, which would at least, show the current lot that sensible people don’t accept lies and maltreatment. We shall know tomorrow. Either way, all I can do is hope the country finds a way to recover from the mess this current lot have made, and the lies and manipulations of Brexshit, while I watch from afar. Being afar, I’m not so influenced by the nasty right-wing press over there and can find a less biased view via European and outside observers, which is what I am. Anyway… Here’s hoping, and here are some more cheerful thoughts:

We put up our Christmas decorations on Wednesday in a flurry of afternoon activity. The tree is a bit crammed into an alcove, but at least it’s out of the way, though I must hide the wires somehow. The other window alcove houses ‘the boys’, Paddington, an elf, Allan from Thunderbirds and the gang, and in the hall, we have our version of the nativity. Basically, it’s Apollo, the Marathon runner, a Neil Godfrey original bronze cast and a man doing yoga, but it’s a start. There’s a pile of things beside my desk which need wrapping, so that could be a job for later today (Thursday) as the rain falls, the thunder rolls and the power goes off again for a few minutes. Let’s hope the lights don’t go out on Britain tomorrow (today) and they those who live there don’t have to suffer another five years of mismanagement by toffs who hide in fridges. Good luck.

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Winter mode

Sure signs that Christmas is coming to the village: The lights are up, and there are parsnips in the shop. Other signs that we are heading into the darker months of winter include the cloud now covering us, the overnight rain and the rising winds. Here are a few rather dodgy photos I snapped the other day in the late afternoon/early evening. It’s darker earlier, of course, and lighter later, but with the shutters closed against the wind – currently from the south, so the temperature is still in the mid-teens – the quilt up over the balcony windows and the heater on, it’s often hard to tell what time of day it is.

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All Go

It’s all go at our place, kind of. There’s a generator outside working away as a nearby house is being done up, we’ve had the mule train going past already, preceded by trucks of metal rods and other building supplies, and whatever is being done is clearly coming along. It might all come to a stop today as rain is forecast for the next 48 hours, plus high winds. Christmas lights are up in the village and Yialos and have been for some time, and there was an outbreak of parsnips at the supermarket the other day.

Inside the house, we’re not quite festive yet, but we were practising carols and Christmas songs on Monday morning – flute and piano. There is to be another carol and song singing event at ‘Bulmas’ at some time before Christmas, again raising money for the orphanage in Rhodes. It’s a bit of a stretch for my piano playing to go from Jingle Bells to Irving Berlin in the same set, but we’ll manage something, especially if I can persuade my fingers to remember what they are supposed to do and look up a C# m/diminished 4^th chord just to remind myself. I also need to look up why my Word programme decided to open blank documents in American English without being asked, and why my keyboard changes from the usual layout to something else (it took me five minutes to find that # symbol) when the one shown on the keyboard is clearly marked and not shift + 3. I can’t wait for my new laptop to arrive, I fear this one has taken on a mind of its own.

So, with all that going on, and plenty of other things, it’s hardly surprising I’ve only managed to write about 10,000 words since November. I don’t know where the days go. I was up at four yesterday, and after doing some necessary work, making breakfast, writing this and sorting out a couple of other things, it’s nearly time to get ready to go for lunch with the neighbours. Maybe I should start getting up at midnight, I might get things done then. Hey ho-ho-ho, such is life in the runup to Christmas.

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